[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 188 (Tuesday, November 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5501-S5502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                       TRIBUTE TO BUTCH SPYRIDON

 Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Hagerty 
and myself, I want to congratulate our friend Butch Spyridon on his 
induction into the JA Nashville Business Hall of Fame.
  Before he retired this summer, Butch served for 32 years as the top 
executive of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp, NCVC. Under 
his leadership, the NCVC transformed Music City into the commerce, 
tourism, and entertainment hub it is today. Before Butch, the country 
music lovers who crowd the famous honky-tonks of lower Broadway and the 
classical music lovers who fill the Schermerhorn made their pilgrimages 
to other destinations. Before Butch, corporations and nonprofits chose 
other conference destinations; now, they compete for space at the Music 
City Center. Today, music historians drawn to the city by the Bluebird 
Cafe, RCA Studio B, and the Ryman Auditorium can also explore the 
National Museum of African American Music, the Gospel Music Hall of 
Fame, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum because Butch 
understood the cultural importance of these interconnected genres. He 
was a vital part of recruiting the city's professional sports teams and 
pushed the effort to build massive sports complexes where they could 
play. He turned Independence Day and New Year's Eve celebrations into 
major tourism spectacles and, in 2019, welcomed the NFL Draft to lower 
Broadway, the most successful draft event in League history.
  In 2023, Butch received the 100th star on the Music City Walk of Fame 
for his unparalleled contributions to the economic and cultural success 
of Nashville, TN. It is our privilege to congratulate him once more on 
this latest, greatest honor: Hall of Fame Laureate.

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